ZachTheZip

Two names have been thrown out there since yesterday: Hunter Yurachek and Mike Waddell. You can't make the best choice without looking at the good and the bad aspects of each option.For Waddell, he had the opportunity to take the job but was passed over in favor of Mack Rhoades. This makes we wonder if taking him now would be a step backwards.As far as Yurachek goes, just look at what he was in charge of while he was working for Rhoades. He oversaw marketing and promotions, media relations, ticket operations, development, video operations and merchandising. I don't know about you, but all those things seem to be the weak points of the department. We have had the discussion on marketing countless times, season ticket sales for the new stadium are only half of what they expected, I'm not we even have any video operations to operate, and merchandising is lackluster. I don't know if Yurachek could do a better job if he took over Mack's duties and appointed someone else to oversee those things, but it is worrisome.

I think it's because it's OU's homecoming. Plus they kicked the crap out of us last year until another one our miracle comebacks was shut down.They're playing OU's homecoming game in Akron?

Not putting in windows doesn't bother me so much as the lack of stands attached to the pressbox.

Rhodes has taken the job with UH. If UA wants to keep Dambrot, perhaps it should rethink the location of a new arena and put it on the UA campus where it belongs.Real universities construct their arenas on campus. Faux universities allow themselves to be contaminated by downtown politicians and build their arenas off campus as a sacrifice to the explosive volcano gods known as downtown politicians. Which is it going to be UA? On-campus stadium = 2 steps forward. Off-campus arena = 5 steps backward to the days of HILLTOP HIGH again. Which is it going to be UA? UA is already doing a wonderful job of promoting the city's and region's infrastructure. In fact it is saving Akron from itself through Info-Cision Stadium, University Park Alliance, saving Quaker Square and running a hotel for the city, the Biomedical Corridor, BioInnovation Institute of Akron, saving Hower House, providing the community with a performing arts hall complete with programming, taking part in the Inventors Hall of Fame School, helping to save the Civic Theater (managed it for several years so far free of cost), saving the Polsky Building and being the encouraging force behind private downtown development.An on-campus arena will serve the city just as well as a downtown arena plus provide the added perks of sprucing up the UA campus even more making it more desirable to student recruits in athletics and enrollment in general. A downtown arena will water down student enthusiasm and do virtually nothing for increased enrollment. It will make UA look like a cheesy community college. We need an on-campus arena for the same reasons we are getting an on-campus stadium. It's a no-brainer. Universities logically build on campus, especially a large people attracting facility like an arena. It further legitimizes the campus and allows non-campus people to get a good visual taste of the advantages of choosing UA for sports and in general.What's it going to be UA?Bilbo, it's good to see you've joined the good side. I figured you'd eventually get tired of the Ohio.com trolls.I thought his style seemed familiar. Welcome. I look forward to arguing with you in a civilized manner soon.

We're getting called out by a Houston blog.I don't think you'll find a single zipsfan who thinks that Rhoades was a great AD. Above average, sure. Even a good AD. But not great. This isn't something to panic over.

That Akron-Temple game was tied 6-6 at the start of the 4th quarter. Only another collapse at the end of the game allowed them to win like that. It's the most glaring problem with the Zips and it's something JD said they are focusing on.Penn State has a weak and thin secondary which will be exploited by Akron's passing game. The positional matchups almost all point in Akron's favor.

"Operation Spring Cleaning" arrests 1,100 people with help from students at UA's Criminal Risk Management Center.

I'm just curious for all the newer users, how did you get here? Especially all the lurkers.Was it word of mouth? An internet search? The ad in the Q from a couple years ago in the MAC tournament?

What benefit would that have? We basically have a Memphis situation right now as it is. Constantly win, so we constantly get our NCAA birth. Do you think it would have been a different story if we were in C-USA this year? A better seed? No it wouldn't have. We still would have had to given up home field advantage. Right now we almost have the benefits of playing as an independent. We only have 5 MAC opponents, we get to select the best schools to fill out the rest of the schedule but with all the benefits of conference affiliation. Championship and automatic bid. If the MAC schools manage to ditch the least expensive mens sport (shin guards, uniforms, and a ball) then that just gives us more reason to push for an entire sport conference switch.The MAC is extremely close to collapsing as a men's soccer conference. We have 7 teams, and the NCAA minimum is 6. Only 5 are true MAC members, with Hartwick being a D-II school that plays up and FAU being way out in Florida which is a long distance to travel tor all of their games for a non-revenue sport that they aren't even that good in. If another full-time MAC school drops the sport to same money I think the entire conference will drop it. We're the only reason they host the sport to begin with. C-USA is a better overall league with higher travel budgets, but not so good that we won't continue to dominate. It would help get the Zips a higher NCAA seed thanks to a tougher conference schedule, while not worrying about having to go independent and losing the chance to play in the RPI-boosting tournament.

Hey Mack, if you really want to go out on a positive note, get men's Soccer into the C-USA for us.

It was on CBS SportslineWell, that's something. I just want to leave comments on as many stories as possible. It's nice to go to a news website and not be surrounded by Ohio.com trolls.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/197184-...k-09-akron-zipsPredicting 7 to 9 wins this season. I would be satisfied with that.

I'm kind of surprised and disappointed that this hasn't even been picked up by any major sports news service like ESPN or FoxSports. Not even an AP blurb.

Here's what Mack did in his time here, as far as I can tell.He renovated the outdoor track just a few months ago so that there are beautiful new stands that blend with the stadium. He built a softball stadium so the team doesn't have to play off campus in an old Great Depression era stadium (sound familiar?). There has been an improvement on the academic side of things, which you don't often hear about.While he doesn't deserve full credit for the football stadium (it was completely inevitable, given how much the RB was costing the school just to keep it from collapsing), he did oversee its almost complete construction and chose the design. He has supposedly set the stage for a renovated JAR but nothing has happened yet and it's supposed to be done by the start of basketball season.He spoke out after the 2007 basketball debacle, which probably got us into the NIT in 2008 where we beat Florida State, thanks to the outrage.There's not really all that much you can do in only 3 years to build a large resume. Rhoades did get lucky and he did walk into a situation where great things were about to happen and everybody knew it. At least we can be thankful that he came here and didn't screw up what was going on.

I want to see someone who shares Proenza's vision. Somebody who can see the incredible potential here, and can devise a plan to make that a reality as quickly as possible.Something I have seen when watching other AD searches is that people always want a guy with strong ties to their university, somebody who already bleeds the school colors. More often than not, those candidates end up as disappointments when you're not yet established. Akron is going through a major transition, and we need somebody who can continue that. An outside way of thinking with a good general skill set for working at a state school, somebody who can raise lots of money until he gets the athletic department to a self-sustaining level. Going the safe or expected route during this period will result in stagnation.

So long as Dr. Proenza has a hand in selecting the new AD, we'll get somebody who shares his vision.Given all the recent hires in the athletic department in terms of new coaching assistants, I have to believe that the next AD will also have a great resume and be someone who sill come in with high expectations. Somebody who is superior to what we were hoping for.

Good luck to him. With Al Davis in charge of the Raiders, you never know just what will happen. Frye could end up being the starter in Week 1. Or he could be asked to switch to nose tackle for all we know. Davis is senile and you have no idea what he might decide.

Houston search narrowed down to two.We'll know for sure very soon. Interviews are finished. It's up to the selection committee to decide now.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6470003.html Newsflush: nobody wants to be like Houston, either.

i was looking at that exact same place. probably the next best place that isn't off-campusI just don't know how much they use the admin building since they put up Simmons Hall.One other spot is the incredibly empty square of land just south of Perkins as soon as you get off Route 8.The one you were looking at is in Blue. The one by Perkins in in Red. Both areas could use a little rejuvenation. The Perkins spot is just a huge empty grass field in downtown. It's an eyesore and I'm amazed that nobody has put anything at all there.

North of Quaker Square across Mill Street on the corner of Mill and Summit could work. I believe UA owns that parking lot which is just a bit smaller than the old proposed area on Main Street. Right across the tracks is another good-sized area where a UA administration building sits, but I don't think it is being used in a major capacity any more. If you really wanted to, you could build right over top of the tracks and combine the two. One area can be the arena and the other can be a parking deck, connected by a walkway. You have the benefit of it being located right behind the renovated post office and other nice buildings on E. Market street and it's technically still on campus so no expensive purchasing of downtown property.You could also put one somewhere near Luigi's. That area seems to be rapidly developing with the apartment/veggie restaurant and new housing.

Well, I happened to walk through the JAR today and the supposed renovations still haven't started.As for the arena, there are plenty of other places to build. I consider all of UA's campus to be in the Downtown area. Why put an arena in the core of downtown on top of existing structures instead of more towards the fringes to help expand the economic area of downtown?

I have absolutely nothing to do with this.

The "waste of money" argument always makes me laugh. They must have never got the memo that keeping the Rubber Bowl running would have cost far more than building a new stadium from scratch. The stadium was actually the cheaper option.Also, who's money is it wasting? There are still people out there who believe that all their taxes are going towards financing it, and that tuition is getting a massive hike to support it. These people are uninformed and they wish to remain that way. I mean, who wants things like facts interrupting their misery?

Love your signature shot uakronkid. Can I put it on the ak-oldies web site?Sure. I found it on Google. I don't know who took it or where it was originally posted to the web.

Well, kid, I guess I just wish people could take a little more pride in the community in which they live. I've lived in two other states, and the way so many Akronites dump on their own town is a phenomenon I've only witnessed here.I'm not negative about NE Ohio. Not in the least. I am negative about people who seem to actually hate their own hometown. I wish they would leave and not let the door hit their a** on the way out.You have the right attitude toward your community, and I get where you are coming from, but you have to understand what these people are like before you can try to talk to them with out them spewing negativity.If this place was so bad, they would have left already. If you want an example of what that's like look at Detroit. The problem is that people see some bad areas in the major cities and project that onto the entire region where they live. No other city does that, despite them all having some horrible areas. I don't know why the mindset is different here, but everywhere else they either ignore or try to improve the problems while here we magnify them in the public's mind. The only way to combat it is to take an example from the rest of the world and ignore them. It won't go away but it will become irrelevant.